'Steal This Art' Art Stolen, Artist Mad

When Bushwick’s Momenta Art gallery first noticed that Adam Simon’s Steal This Art piece was missing earlier this month, they were sure the artist lifted it himself as a prank. Not so.

“The idea that I would take it myself for a cheap publicity stunt is underestimating both me and the work,” the artist tells the Brooklyn Paper. “I work hard on them. I feel bad that it was a benefit and a person has taken it.”

The $300 five-by-seven-inch stenciled wood panel was to be raffled off in a benefit tomorrow. The artist might donate another one of his series of 30, but he’d rather whoever thought it would be clever to take it upon themselves to activate the painting by interpreting it literally would return it. He’s not really Abbie Hoffman… he’s just alluding to him.

A work from the Steal This Art series was also stolen last year from the nearby Storefront, but gallery owner Jason Andrew — in all his physical might — hunted down the thief and the work. Get this man a reality show.

Hoffman actually wanted people to steal his book, which in turn encouraged them to steal other things (and in fact gave tips on how to do so). Anyone who would make and display a piece like this, then decry it's theft, seems to have missed the very point they were alluding to.